Execution rampant in drug war; UN probe needed – AI

MANILA, Philippines — Extrajudicial killings related to the government’s anti-drug campaign continue to occur, destroying lives and devastating communities, rights group Amnesty International said yesterday.

In a report titled “They just kill: Ongoing extrajudicial executions and other violations in the Philippines’ war on drugs,” the group said the United Nations must immediately investigate possible rights violations and crimes committed in the wake of the implementation of the war against drugs.

Amnesty International (AI) Philippines director Butch Olano said while the killings were well documented in the first year of the Duterte administration, lately the cases often go unreported.

Olano said the non-reporting of cases contributed to the perilous normalization of extrajudicial executions, police abuses, erosion of the rule of law and victimization of the poor.

“This situation leaves the victims’ families feeling even more powerless and isolated than before,” Olano said.

Nicholas Bequelin, Amnesty regional director for East and Southeast Asia, said it has been three years, but President Duterte’s war on drugs continues to be a “large-scale murdering enterprise for which the poor continue to pay the highest price.”

“It is not safe to be poor in the Philippines. All it takes to be murdered is an unproven accusation that someone uses, buys or sells drugs. Everywhere we went to investigate drug-related killings, ordinary people were terrified. Fear has now spread deep into the social fabric of society,” Bequelin said.

To put an end to these killings and give justice and reparations for the families and victims, the group urged the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) to immediately conduct an independent, impartial and effective investigation into these violations, including crimes committed under international law.

Bequelin said the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court must hasten its examination of the situation and open a full and thorough criminal investigation.

The group asked the Office of the Ombudsman and the Department of Justice to initiate an independent, impartial and effective investigation into the conduct of law enforcement officials suspected of involvement in the killings.

Amnesty said the killings have become prevalent in the province of Bulacan.

“Following the transfer of senior police officials from Metro Manila… until then the country’s epicenter of killings, Bulacan province in Central Luzon is now the country’s bloodiest killing field,” the group said. – With Pia Lee-Brago, Helen Flores